According to this report, two of the biggest reasons for conversion given by former Catholics who converted to Evangelical Protestantism are that these converts "stopped believing in Catholic teachings (62%) and specifically because they were unhappy with Catholic teachings about the Bible (55%)."
As a former fundamental Baptist who's seen my fair share of conversions from Catholicism to the Baptist religion, I personally doubt the accuracy of these reasons. I think conversions have almost nothing to do with belief and almost everything to do with personal connections. Converts to Evangelical Protestantism adopt Evangelical Protestant beliefs through a process of immersion in an evangelical church. The only uniquely protestant belief that a former Catholic and new convert takes to an evangelical church is their belief that they will go to heaven because they've been born again - and the only reason they have that belief is because another evangelical went through the work of getting to know them and leading them to Christ. The human interaction precedes the change in belief. The change in belief does not precede the human interaction, as the former Catholic converts to Evangelical Protestantism seem to think.
Really, it should be no surprise that the fault they claim to have found with the Catholic Church was its teachings on the Bible. They are looking back onto a past part of their life through a religious lense that they got since then. Now that they are Evangelical Protestants, they insert their present reason for not being Catholic as their original reason for leaving the Catholic Church. I'm sure someone else has noticed this, and has a phrase for it; but until I learn what that phrase is I'll call this phenomenon "convert talk".
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About Me
- Isaiah
- I am a part-time philosopher and a former immigration paralegal with a BA in philosophy and a paralegal certificate from UC San Diego.
Why does it really matter? I mean, you are still believing in the same God and reading the same book, just with a different approach. Sort of like switching from one calculus class to another. At least, that's how I look at it.
ReplyDeleteBut maybe I am unaware of the major philosophical issues here, having never been exposed to Christianity in depth. And maybe you could say a similar thing about converting to different political ideologies.
People's reasons for converting to different religions matters mostly to people who want to learn "consumer preferences" and make money off religion, and also to sociologists.
ReplyDeleteThe reasons for converting usually aren't philosophical or theological. It usually comes down to which group gives the person a feeling of belonging, and that's a lot broader than theology. I personally think that beliefs are tools people use to express an identity or orientation they already have.
Yes, you could say similar things about political conversions.